Reflection Week 6

This week in class we had another guess speaker which our very own Bonnie Finch. She hails from Australia and I was interested in learning about another country especially one like Australia. At first I didn't know what to expect from this I originally thought that people lived in the desert out there and there was a whole bunch of Kangaroos running around. Some interesting facts that I learned from Mrs. Bonnie was that in Australia, their population is 23 million, compared to our country that is a very small population because United States has a population of around 300 million. I always thought Australia had a big population, but once you compared it to ours there is really no comparison. We were also told that Australia has a really young country. Their first fleet of settlers arrived in the 1790’s, and they didn’t become a federation until 1901. I thought this was interesting because to me I thought that most countries had a long line of history and in 1901 Arizona became an official state. So basically by this time the United States was almost formed completely. Australia’s political system is actually more conservative than the United States and they use a Prime Minister rather than a President. The Queen overlooks this country as well as many others. Australia has standardized healthcare which is an interesting concept within itself. I kind of like the idea where you can have private healthcare too but I don't think that I could wait that long to be seen. However, Its a lot better situation than most in the States I believe seeing that a lot of people don't have healthcare period.

 I think that with having guess speakers coming into the class or speaking via IVN is a great way to learn from somebodies first hand experiences. I think its just a better way to learn because sometimes its hard to truly grasp the idea of what is being taught through text. I like this idea for being taught about another culture especially with learning about Australia it was authentic because Bonnie had the accent and style of dress.